


In the Orange Glow

by Aydammair



Category: Original Work
Genre: Drabbles, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Serepsia, Urban Fantasy, Vaguely Sucidal Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 02:19:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/768833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aydammair/pseuds/Aydammair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles in my original universe. They focus mainly on interpersonal relationships with occasional glimpses of plot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From prompts found at http://varietywritingprompt.tumblr.com. Much love to that blog. Most of these drabbles have a larger plot behind them, but I wanted to put this up in an attempt to inspire myself to write. I welcome and love questions and debate!

Alice stares down at the grave. A breeze stirs the lilies in her hand and she glances reflexively at them. She blinks and then lays them down on the grave that reads Emily Constane 1465-1677.  
  
“It’s over Emily. We caught him,” she murmurs and trails her hand gently over the tombstone as she leaves. Roxy is leaning against the car looking like she needs a cigarette when Alice approaches.  
  
“All good?” Roxy asks.  
  
You are still responsible for her death. Alice thinks.  
  
“Doesn’t it bother you a little?” she asks. Roxy stares off into the distance, hand braced on the open door.  
  
“If I let it, I wouldn’t still be standing here,” Roxy finally says. Alice gets into the car and glances at the lump in Roxy’s jacket. The one that conceals the gun holding cold iron bullets. She does not say anything as they pull out of the graveyard, orange leaves falling around them like slow silent tears.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Roxy does not react when Alice slides onto the pew next to her. They both stare contemplatively at the stained glass window that is casting a mosaic of colour over the chapel. The glass image of the Great Mother glows and seems to reach out to them as the sun sets behind it. Roxy glances sideways at Alice.  
  
“How do you cope?” she asks.  
  
“With what?” Alice replies.  
  
“With a lack of faith. It’s terrifying.”  
  
“You don’t have a lack of faith.”  
  
Roxy snorts.  
  
“No you don’t. You’ve always had faith. You still do. Maybe not in her anymore. But that’s what drives you. Faith in yourself, in me, in us, in what we do.”  
  
Roxy stays quiet.  
  
“Go see her. Tell her you hate her or you love her, I don’t care. Tell her how you feel and do it for all of us who wish we could,” Alice says finally. Roxy studies her fingers for a moment and then looks up at the window, now dark.  
  
“Yeah, okay,” she says quietly.  
  
That night she calls Delilah.  
  
“Roxanne,” Delilah answers in her usual mildly polite tone.  
  
“I love you. Not the way I’m supposed to. It’s wrong and dirty and human, but I love you,” Roxy says.  
  
“Roxy,” Delilah breathes out, apologetic, confused and understanding.  
  
“No, don’t. I just. I had to say it. Just once,” Roxy interrupts and hangs up. She stares down at the blank phone. Delilah does not call back.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Alice shuts the door behind her. The office fills with stifling silence.  
  
“I would give anything,” Roxy starts and takes a breath, “I wish last night didn’t end like that.”  
  
“But it did. And it didn’t have to. You could have walked away,” Alice says.  
  
“Walked away from what? From you?” Roxy looks up, eyes bright, “I walked away, looked away from so much. But this?”  
  
She stops, jaw working as she attempts to wrangle the emotions inside her, to force them into coherent words.  
  
“You didn’t have to shoot him!” Alice shouts, “We have options!”  
  
“Options? He was a sorcerer! A sorcerer who killed people! He was going to kill me! And take you!” Roxy shouts back.  
  
“You don’t know that!”  
  
“I couldn’t take the chance!”  
  
“And what if you had tried to talk to me first?” Alice says lowly, “But you didn’t. You never do. You acted on your own and it ended in the worst way possible. You should have just talked to me.”  
  
“I didn’t want to hear you say it,” Roxy confesses, small and broken.  
  
“Say what?”  
  
“That you were leaving me,” Roxy whispers. Alice freezes then looks down and away.  
  
“Well if you already know, you don’t need to hear me say it,” she says finally and leaves the office. Roxy stands. The world spins around her and she catches herself on the desk. Two tears land on the report in front of her. The words Jonothan and church blur. Roxy forces down a sob and takes a deep breath. She steps toward the door then realizes there is not anything she can do now. Her hand tightens on the statue of an elegant cat sitting on the corner of the desk. She spins and throws it into the bookcase. Glass and porcelain and wood shatter and Roxy shatters with it. She crumples to the ground and falls against the side of the desk. Tears pour silently down her face and she does not move for a long time.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Alice is sprawled on her bed attempting to decipher her notes from the day she drank too much coffee and developed an obsession with fractals. A soft breeze flitters in from the window and ruffles her tank top. Soft typing and the sounds of a violin playing through discarded headphones mingle with the sounds of a soccer game outside.  
  
“Yes!” Roxy exclaims triumphantly. Alice glances over at her roommate who spins around in her chair.  
  
“Brian just send me the contact information about getting the zebra for graduation,” Roxy explains. Alice sighs.  
  
“Roxy no,” she says firmly.  
  
“Alice yes,” Roxy parrots back, “I’m finally graduating and I’m doing it in style. Not with a dancing over-grown stuffed animal.”  
  
“Eric’ll be upset to hear you say that. You know he takes his job seriously.”  
  
“He knows how I feel. The zebra is a majestic animal, not a child’s toy.”  
  
“They’re also ornery as hell. With your luck it will bite the dean.”  
  
“Nah, he’ll probably stay away from it and do his best to pretend it doesn’t exist. Ten bucks says he doesn’t even mention it.”  
  
“Because that would mean he’d have to deal with it and then he’d have to deal with you.”  
  
“I still maintain everything ever was Brian’s fault. I’m a victim in all this.”  
  
“Uh-huh. And whose credit card information are you typing in right there?”  
  
“Zack’s!” Roxy says cheerfully. Alice rolls her eyes and returns to her notes. She had always maintained that locking a bunch of brilliant kids together in the same house for four years could not result in anything good.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Roxy stumbles through the door laughing. Alice raises an eyebrow and grabs her roommate before she can tip over. Roxy laughs harder.  
  
“Oh Goddess,” Roxy gasps out. Alice drops her on the couch and pulls off her shoes. She closes the front door and deposits the shoes before turning back to Roxy.  
  
“Have a good time tonight?” she asks amused.  
  
“I had such a good time. You should have been there. It was amazing,” Roxy replies and yanks Alice down when she approaches. Alice catches herself on the back of the couch.  
  
“Seriously it was amazing,” Roxy repeats.  
  
“I bet it was. You know what else is amazing? Bed,” Alice says and straightens, attempting to drag Roxy with her. Roxy giggles and drapes herself across Alice’s shoulder. Alice staggers slightly under the weight.  
  
“Bed is amazing. It would be more amazing if you were there,” Roxy mumbles into Alice’s hair.  
  
“Of course,” Alice says indulgently. Roxy takes a deep breath.  
  
“So amazing,” she mumbles, “And pretty.” She takes another deep breath.  
  
“Did you just smell me?” Alice asks.  
  
“Yes,” Roxy replies simply. Alice dumps her on the bed and attempts to untangle them as Roxy attempts to pull her down.  
  
“Come here. You smell amazing. And so pretty. Please, I just want to touch,”  
  
“How much did you have to drink?” Alice asks, peering into Roxy’s dilated eyes.  
  
“Dunno, like six shots or something? Am I drunk? I don’t feel drunk. I feel amazing. You’re pretty,” Roxy says. Alice sighs.  
  
“Stay put. I’m going to get some water.”  
  
Alice slips into the kitchen and grabs her phone.  
  
“Hey Max? Is Kevin with you?… Call him. I think we found the ineevie.”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Eric sighs and leans against a tree. Farther down the hill Daniel is standing at the edge of the cliff holding a huge flash light over the beach for Nick who is crouched at the water line peering into tide pools. At the horizon a huge moon is rising. The night is silent except for the sound of bugs, the waves and Daniel conferring with Nick. Eventually Nick reappears at the top of the cliff. He and Daniel trudge through the grass back to Eric. Nick shakes his head.  
  
“I looked in every tide pool. Lots of critters, but no signs of spell work or unusual activity.”  
  
“Maybe it got washed away by the tide?” Eric suggests  
  
“Tide’s on it’s way out. Those pools haven’t been touched all night,” Nick replies.  
  
“It’s okay Eric,” Daniel says, “Maybe it’s the next moon.”  
  
“This is supposed to be the closest the moon will be for a decade. The size won’t be right next month.”  
  
“Maybe you didn’t have a vision. Maybe it was just a bad taco. Come on, I’m freezing,” Daniel replies and playfully punches his brother’s shoulder.  
  
“Yeah okay,” Eric replies and follows the other two toward the car. Behind them a huge tentacle rises slowly out of the sea. Its sinuous writhing is perfectly silhouetted by the huge moon, now fully risen.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Where’s my phone?” Alice demands.  
  
“It’s lying right in front of you,” Roxy replied as she exits her room. She quickly finishes fastening her earring then leans over and peers through the crack between Alice’s door and the frame. She can barely make out the lump in the bed through the gloom. She turns her head slightly to leer at her roommate.  
  
“Long night?” she asks.  
  
“Shut up,” Alice snaps and walks over to pull the door quietly shut. She resumes attempting to put everything in the right pocket as Roxy saunters over to the front door and puts on her shoes. She leans over to pet Maria as Alice finally manages to get everything she needs and put her shoes on.  
  
“Think he’ll be up for lunch, or did you really work him over?” Roxy says.  
  
“Shut up. Seriously, I never give you crap about the people you go home with.”  
  
“That’s because one; I never bring them over when you’re home for exactly this reason, and two; I know you don’t sleep around. That means this is serious and I get best friend teasing rights.”  
  
“There are no such thing as teasing rights.”  
  
“Sure there are. Ask Max.”  
  
…  
  
“It’s true,” Max says, “It’s in the code of brothers.”  
  
Kevin nods seriously behind his coffee mug. Alice rolls her eyes and leaves the break room.  
  
“Congratulations by the way,” Max yells after her.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Honestly, I don’t like you. You’re slimy and sneaky and way too smooth. I know you break the law. You know I know you break the law and you make no attempt to hide it. Normally I’d respect your honesty, but in your case I think it’s because you’re an arrogant son of a bitch who thinks he’s a gift to the world because he’s handsome. But Alice loves and trusts you and I love and trust Alice and I like seeing her happy. But make no mistake. Hurt her, abuse her trust and I will kill you,” Roxy says with a calm deadly voice.  
  
“I’m sure you will,” Jonothan replies in a tone of voice that sounds deferential, but they both know is meant to taunt.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Roxy stumbles into her apartment. She does not bother turning on a light, just stumbles across lines of orange cast by street lights through the blinds and falls on the couch.  
  
“Today was a good day,” she says firmly, “I closed the Fincher case. Would you believe it was a ghost possessing a cat. I chased the goddamn thing up and down the street for an hour. Trey thought it was hilarious, so I made him buy the first round.”  
  
Roxy laughs, “Oh hey, Alice. Guess what happened at the bar. Had this guy spin me around at the bar, kiss me then say, ‘Oh shit, you’re not who I thought you were,’ and walk away. Should have gone after him, he had a nice ass.”  
  
Roxy rolls over and stares at the lines of orange on the carpet. They glow like bars of a cage she can never break out of. Because she would never do that. Even here at the bottom of a fish bowl, with people staring in and tapping the glass and not understanding why she cannot breath. If all she can do is keep taking one step forward at a time, then that is what she will do. The tick of the clock in the kitchen echoes through the room like an inexorable countdown to the day something kills her, because she will never do it herself. Her one last defiant gesture, to keep on walking when everything wants to drag her down.  
  
Roxy snorts and rolls back over. Great Mother but she gets stupidly poetic when she is drunk.  
  
“You’d be laughing at me if you were here,” she says out loud, “But if you were here I wouldn’t be saying this shit. We’d be laughing at that stupid cat. We used to laugh a lot didn’t we. You left and all I have are memories. That’s all I have at the end of the day. Just stupid memories. I used to have you. Then I lost you with a single gunshot, just to prove a point. Now, you’re gone like a flash on your camera taking snapshots of us.”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Roxy, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” Kelina says soothingly. Roxy spins and points a finger at her.  
  
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare use your smooth talking bullshit on me now. You poisoned me.”  
  
“I did it to save your life,” Kelina snaps back.  
  
“Why should I believe you? You’ve only told me lies!”  
  
“I didn’t lie about how beautiful you are,” Kelina says.  
  
“Everyone says that during sex.”  
  
“That doesn’t make it a lie. And later, I didn’t lie about respecting your work.”  
  
“If you respected my work you wouldn’t have put me in this position.”  
  
“Roxy enough,” Alice snaps and steps forward. Roxy turns on her.  
  
“What Alice? What do you have to say? What could you possibly say that would make this right?”  
  
“I lived without you once, I can’t do it again,” Alice says quietly. Roxy freezes. Her own broken words wash over her like cold water. She turns away and runs a hand down her face.  
  
“Okay,” she says, “Okay. What do I have to know?”  
  
She squares her shoulders and turns around. Kelina and Alice exchange glances then when Kelina speaks her voice is precise and professional.  
  
“Most of the blood in your system is mine right now. For all intents and purposes, you’re a ktari now.”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Amy set the zucchini on the cutting board and began slicing it with neat precise strokes. Something rattled in the living room. She glanced into the dim room with a frown.  
  
“Honey? Do you need a hand with something?” she called.  
  
“What?” her husband shouted back from upstairs. Something rattled again, the sound was distinctly glass on glass. Amy frowned and gripped her knife tighter. She stepped into the doorway and turned the light on. On the coffee table an abandoned mug rattled again and a magazine slid off onto the ground. Suddenly the pattern in the antique rug lit up gold. The pattern rose into the air, forming an oddly shaped column. The coffee table vaporized. The column began to writhe then formed a nebulous cloud that shot toward Amy and enveloped her before she had time to scream. It felt like her bones were melting and her skin turning to dust as something, a living something, settled into her body.  
  
“Honey? Is everything okay?” someone asked behind her. Amy spun around and buried her knife in his chest. She pulled the knife free and her husband fell to the ground. Amy stepped over the corpse and washed the knife in the sink. She carefully put the knife away then pulled off her apron and hung it beside the fridge. It was her final act as a house wife.  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More prompts! Also from http://varietywritingprompt.tumblr.com. Check it out, it's a great blog.

Roxy peers over the side of the pit. Its perfectly square sides easily reflect the spotlights surrounding it. A hundred feet down the metal roof of the warehouse gleams with a slick oily sheen. Roxy tosses a rock into the pit. It bounces and its echoes sound like the whispering of a ghost. Roxy makes a contemplative face and returns to the tent housing their temporary headquarters.   
  
“The whole site is radioactive. Most of the equipment is contaminated as well. We have to leave everything behind,” Simon says to Alice.   
  
“What about us?” she asks.  
  
“Fortunately it’s only affecting rock and metal. We’re also detecting a growing magnetic field.”  
  
“Any guess what that means?” Roxy asks. Simon looks contemplative then uncertain.  
  
“The scripts talk about the rock-like strength of his body. Creatively interpreted, maybe the spell will fashion a body for him to inhabit. Like a golem.”  
  
“A giant bloodthirsty house-of-an-ancient-god golem?”  
  
“Well, yeah?”  
  
“Wonderful. Lovely,” Roxy shakes her head then smiles ruefully, “Well I did say ktari were getting boring. Where’s my sword?”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Wait. What? You slept with Kelina?” Mika asks.   
  
“You seriously didn’t pick up on that?” Alice comments. Mika ignores her.  
  
“How come you never told me?” he demands.  
  
“I didn’t tell you because it’s none of your business,” Roxy snaps.  
  
“She has a point,” Jayden puts in. Mika and Roxy ignore him as well.  
  
“None of my business? You’ve been sleeping with the one person who can help us right now and you didn’t see fit to mention it before now?”  
  
“Slept, as in past tense. You’ll note I’m not exactly bosom buddies with any of my conquests.”  
  
Jayden wonders how Kelina would react to being called a conquest; she would probably be flattered. Jayden snorts; it really should not have been a surprise Roxy and Kelina had sex. Alice steps forward to break up the argument.  
  
“Stop posturing, both of you,” she orders. Roxy and Mika fall silent like sullen children.  
  
“Roxy,” Alice says calmly, “Do you know of a way to contact Kelina?”  
  
“No. Not directly.”  
  
“But,” Alice prompts.  
  
“She had a tattoo. On her, ah, lower back. I think we could use it as the target for a summoning spell,” Roxy explains. Alice gives Jayden a questioning look.  
  
“Yeah, I think I can work that spell,” he says, “It’s more complicated, but no harder than anything else we’ve done.”  
  
“Great! So to recap, we’re going to summon a Kadra Ktari who might be a jilted ex-lover, tear a hole in the dimensions for her army of chaos and use it to destroy the hordes of undead on our doorstep. Sounds like a party,” Mika recaps. It is difficult to tell if his enthusiasm is sarcastic or not.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
The muffled gunshot barely echoes down the alley. Alice crumples to the ground, hand reflexively clutching her leg. Curtis grins and tucks his gun away. He steps toward Alice. Behind him Emily struggles with the goons holding her. Her screams are muffled by a leather clad hand. She reaches toward Alice in a desperate plea for rescue. Alice keeps her attention focused on Curtis. Her other hand curls around the knife in her boot. Curtis takes one step closer. In a flash Alice lunges to her knees and flings the knife into Curtis’s chest. He flares gold and collapses. Alice tries to get to her feet and falls to her knees again. At the other end of the alley the thugs successfully pull Emily into a black van and drive off. The sound of running feet comes around the corner behind Alice.  
  
“Alice!” Roxy shouts. She falls to her knees next to Alice and immediately notes the bullet wound. She fumbles in her pocket for a thick handkerchief and pushes Alice’s hand out of the way, replacing it with her own.  
  
“What happened?” Roxy demands.  
  
“They took Emily,” Alice says, voice soft and dead.  
  
“Okay. Right,” Roxy pulls out her phone. Alice turns and grabs her coat collar.  
  
“They took her. They took Emily. I couldn’t stop them,” she says almost hysterically.   
  
“I know. We’ll get her back, I promise,” Roxy says soothingly, phone to her ear. It rings once, then Kevin answers.  
  
“We’re in the alley behind Jamie’s. Alice’s been shot,” Roxy reports. Alice’s hands flex in her collar as she attempts to find words to convey that Emily is gone and they need to find her right now. Her urgency is lost to blackness as she passes out.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
I slip the key into the lock and turn. A flutter of wings is all the warning I get before a hand pushes me into the room and the door shuts behind me. I spin around and press a knife to my assailant’s throat as he pins my shoulders to the wall. Dark blue eyes register just before I slip my foot behind his knee. I relax and let my weapon arm drop.  
  
“Seriously Javan? You couldn’t have called,” I say exasperated.  
  
“Couldn’t risk it,” he says, “You know you’re being watched.”  
  
“And this is your solution?” I demand.  
  
“Well,” he says coyly, sliding a hand up my hip, “I saw an opportunity and took it.”  
  
I laugh a little, we both know I would have done the same, and let him press close.  
  
“Kelina is moving in close. I’ve got troop placements and a message for you,” he says. He holds up an envelope. I grab it and pull it open. He moves back a step to give me room to open it but leaves his hand on my hip. I let him; the worst part about undercover work is the lack of physical contact without an ulterior motive. I quickly flip through the documents, memorizing the charts and notes as best I can. The last page is a personal missive from Kelina. It’s her usual polite drivel: warning me to look out for myself and assuring me that she is ready to assist as soon as I need it. I review the information one last time and hand the papers back to Javan. He tucks them into a pocket then pulls me into a filthy kiss. His hands tighten and pull in my hair as he bites at my lips. I give back as good as I get. A long, wet minute later he pulls back and grins. Then he reaches out and pulls my shirt out of my pants.  
  
“Perfect,” he says with a wink and disappears. Perfect indeed, now I have the walk of shame to give the receptionist the bathroom key back. I’ve had it for twenty minutes. I should just smile and wink. She knows what went down. Well, she thinks she does, and it doesn’t hurt to keep it that way. So I toss in a bit of a leer at the end of my smile. She returns it politely but with a hint of humor.  
  
“Mr. Anderson is ready whenever you are,” she says. I bite back the impulse to tell her I’m always ready and saunter into the inner office, trying desperately to project the confidence I can slowly feel leaking away.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Roxy cocks her gun and puts her hand on the door.  
  
“Are you ready to do this?” she asks Alice.  
  
“Are you ready?” Alice replies.  
  
“Why wouldn’t I be ready? We’ve trained for this. We’re so ready.”  
  
“I was joking, but now I’m worried.”  
  
“Don’t be. We’ve got this.”  
  
“Yes we do. Now open the door.”  
  
“Can I help you ladies?” a silky smooth voice asks behind them. Roxy spins around and fires a bullet. It hits the man in the chest. He collapses with a flare of golden light.  
  
“Well,” Roxy says and sheaths her gun, “That takes care of that.”  
  
She and Alice exchange glances then turn away to suppress inappropriate and hysterical giggles.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
I walk quickly through the forest. In between the trees I can see images projected onto ephemeral movie screens. Both memories and my current actions. Well, the actions of the thing using my body. I ignore them and push on. If I can find a weapon, myself, my strength, something, anything to take back control. I don’t even know if it’s possible. I’m just running on the theories that have been tossed around the office. But if all I have are theories then theories are what I’ll use.   
  
“Alice,” a voice calls behind me. I spin around. A blonde woman is standing behind me reaching out beseechingly.  
  
“Alice why didn’t you save me?” she asks.   
  
“Or me,” another voice chimes. I turn to see a little boy. Ten years old with innocent brown eyes.   
  
“I’ll called for you Alice. Why didn’t you come for me?” he asks.  
  
“What about me?” a little girl asks.   
  
“No. No it wasn’t my fault. I did the best I could. I promise,” I say desperately.   
  
“Did you?” a cold voice asks. A dark man I don’t recognize appears next to the little boy and rests a hand on his shoulder, “Did you really?”   
  
“Yes,” I say desperately, parroting the words Roxy tells me every time. They feel as useless now as they did then, “Yes, I did. I’m just one person. I can’t save them all.”  
  
“Maybe you could have. If you were just a little bit faster, if you’d seen the clues a little bit earlier, if you’d pushed a little harder. But sometimes it’s like you don’t try hard enough. Like you don’t care.”  
  
“You’re wrong!” I protest.  
  
“Am I? Maybe I am, but we both know the secret you’re hiding. The secret you could have used to save them all.”  
  
“No! There’s nothing. There’s no secret,” I deny desperately.  
  
“I know everything about you. I live inside your soul,” it says, “I know.”  
  
“No!” I scream one more time.  
  
The thing’s eyes widen. The screen behind him shows an image of Roxy and Kevin’s eyes widening as well. The image shifts to one of my hands pressed to the conference room table, fingers white and trembling.   
  
“Well then,” the thing inside my head says. My fingers relax and the image vanishes.  
  
“Are you sure you have no secret?” it asks. Then a hole opens up underneath me. My memories watch dispassionately as I fall past them.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“I’m so glad to see you!”  
  
“I though you were dead!”  
  
“I though the same thing.’  
  
Daniel scoffs.  
  
“I’m harder to kill than that,” he says.  
  
“So am I,” Roxy retorts. Daniel raises an eyebrow.  
  
“Ducking a sword swing is one thing. Ducking a huge pillar of fire is a different matter entirely,” he points out.  
  
“A giant pillar of fire is pretty easy to duck if there’s an active portal in the middle.”  
  
“So you cheated.”  
  
“I still won. Badass of the Year,” Roxy raises a fist triumphantly. Daniel laughs in agreement.  
  
“Come on. Let’s get you a towel.”  
  
Roxy looks down at her dripping wet clothing, caked to the knee in sand. She grins unapologetically.  
  
“And a phone. I need to call Alice.”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“I told you I was falling for you and all you could say was thanks.”  
  
“I do care about you. You know that.”  
  
“I had to build up so much courage to tell you how I feel only to be shot down! How am I supposed to react to that?”  
  
The comforting smile slides off Roxy’s face. She sets her carving knife down and turns to face Daniel.  
  
“I told you it was a drunk mistake and you should just walk away. You’re the one who stayed. Who made a place for himself here, where you knew nothing would happen. So you fell for me. Fine, thanks. I’m glad you think we have compatible personalities. But I’m not going to change myself for you just because you think you’re in love with me.”  
  
“So all of it means nothing.”  
  
“It doesn’t mean what you want it to. It never will.”  
  
“You know what? Fine. I tried, I reached out. If you don’t want to reach back, that’s your problem. But you know what? Keep it up and you’re going to end up alone and full of regret.”  
  
Daniel turns and storms out of the apartment. Roxy watches him go, then turns back to the cutting board. She picks up the knife then puts it down again. She braces herself on the counter and takes a deep breath.  
  
“I already am,” she whispers.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Why is there another stolen fire extinguisher in my room? You know that’s a felony right?”  
  
Roxy casually turns a page and does not look up from where she’s comfortably reclining on her bed. The extinguisher is sitting in the middle of her desk like a trophy.  
  
“It’s not a felony if it’s empty,” she replies. Alice’s face contorts hilariously from confusion to realization to exasperation to resignation. Roxy watches her over the top of her book, eyes glittering with amusement.  
  
“The lab or the dining hall?” Alice finally asks.  
  
“Lab. Turns out aluminum and HCl is a third order reaction. Who knew?”  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Delilah held up her hand and Eigen floated down to land. His tiny but strong talons curled carefully around her fingers. Delilah leaned forward and pressed her nose to his fluffed chest. Eigen chortled and rubbed his beak against her forehead. There were so many noble sounding things she could say. But she did not waste her breath. Eigen knew. He understood the way no one else did. Delilah reached out and took the chunk of obsidian from Darius. It gleamed a sick orange in the warping light. Eigen carefully gripped it tight in his beak. Delilah threw her hand up and launched him into the sky. A spark of her energy flew with him and curled around him, protecting him from the wind and debris generated by the portal. Eigen soared out over the lake and toward the pulsing hole in the universe with smooth confident strokes of his wings. The light around the hole twisted and blurred and turned it into a throbbing black nothingness. The wind increased as Eigen neared and seemed to push him every way but toward the hole. Determined, he winged forward, straining his tiny body. Delilah’s magic fell away, sucked from him by the portal. Eigen tumbled in a daze, but he was close enough to be caught in the portal’s inexorable pull. As he and his precious burden neared the portal seemed to bend away from the stone like a living membrane. Eigen strained to reached it. His feathers and bones began to twist and bend and everything about his reality warped itself. The portal rippled and throbbed faster and faster in a dizzying blur of indescribable colours. Eigen held his breath and everything held its breath with him. The moment stretched to an eternity. Then the obsidian crossed those last few microns and touched the portal. The light enveloped Eigen like a bubble and popped. Time stopped completely and so did his beating heart.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
He stood on the desert floor, heard a rumble like thunder and then the prune like ground ripped open. Rocks tumbled like water to form a rough staircase. The sound of the landslide was buried in the roar of his army. Screaming hordes filled the valley around him and clung to the sheer cliff sides of the mesas. Winged monsters crouched on the mesa tops and launched themselves into the air in chaotic formations. The ground rippled with secondary tremors from other portals. Silas grinned. The usurper would pay for underestimating their Great Mother. He raised his arms with a cry. The army surged forward and down the stairs. Silas walked forward at a dignified pace and made his way through the portal. His army flowed around him like a flood of death.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“I don’t know if it’s the Everclear or the chemistry, but I think my brain is leaking out my ears,” Roxy says and turns her textbook upside down. She frowns when it does not magically make sense. Brian grunts from where his face is firmly pressed to his notebook. Roxy swings her legs around and over the back of the couch. She turns her book around again and lets her head dangle backwards. She immediately groans and rolls off the couch onto the ground with a thump, clutching at her face.  
  
“Bad idea,” she moans.   
  
“Doing that or majoring in chemistry?’ Brian mumbles.  
  
“Both. Everything. My entire life,” Roxy moans as the ceiling spins above her. Alice walks in and lets the door swing shut behind her. Both Brian and Roxy flinch at the sound.  
  
“Alice, darling, kill me now?” Roxy says with a whimper. Alice looks down at her with amusement.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“Simon made alcohol. We figured it couldn’t make this chapter harder.”  
  
“Isn’t the test tomorrow?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
Alice sighs.  
  
“Good luck with that. I’ll pick some aspirin when I go out tonight.”  
  
“I love you,” Roxy says sincerely, “Marry me?”  
  
Alice snorts.  
  
“You wish,” she replies.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
“Yeah. Sure. You’re always right,” Alice says absentmindedly. Roxy looks up from her folder to find Alice subtly staring over the rim of her cocktail. Roxy follows her partner’s line of sight to see Charles laughing with Kevin and Max at the bar.  
  
“Gay,” she says. Alice makes a disagreeing sound.   
  
“I don’t know, he doesn’t make my gaydar go ding-ding,” Alice says. Roxy snorts then calmly leans back.  
  
“Breakfast,” she says.  
  
“Dinner,” Alice counters, “At Lamar’s.”  
  
“Done.”  
  
Alice grins in a sweetly sarcastic way then saunters over to Charles.  
  
The next night Roxy makes a point of ordering the most expensive steak on the menu.  
  
ZIIZ  
  
Roxy stumbles out of her bedroom.  
  
“Good morning sunshine,” Alice says from the couch. Roxy stops and stares at her hands.  
  
“I have a bit of a bomb to drop…I am engaged. Again. This time to a man,” she says. Alice scrolls down a page without looking up.  
  
“Strawberry drop shots?” she comments.  
  
“Cherry,” Roxy falls onto the couch and buries her face in her hands. At the feel of a ring against her cheek she jerks back and stares at her hands.  
  
“I don’t even remember his name,” she says with mute horror. There is a groan from the bedroom. Alice and Roxy both turn toward the sound; Alice’s expression is amused, Roxy’s is horrified.  
  
“What do I do?” Roxy whispers.  
  
“Well, you fetch the poor man a glass of water and some aspirin. He must have been very drunk to marry you,” Alice comments. Roxy scowls at her.  
  
“I’m quite the catch,” she insists.   
  
“Of course you are,” Alice soothes, “But he had to drink you under the table in order to put a ring on that finger.”  
  
Roxy stares at her hands again.  
  
“Kevin is going to break a rib laughing,” she concludes.

ZIIZ


End file.
